The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-04-28

Risque-son-c0uw
"lsisque.son-cou :" I repeated, in per-
plexity.
Gay, Pierre Paul Grincheux, II you
please, dit Risque-son -cou," said the man,
with an odd sort of pride; "its name,
II you read the reports of our tribunals,
that you may have met with. Toulon,
Brest, Lambessa-I know every one of
those charming retreats like my pocket.
l have had enough sea-afr for one while,
so I gave myself leave Of absence"
And then remembered to have seen q
in local paper announcing
the escape from Toulon of criminal Of
the worst and most dangerous type, who
had not as yet been recaptured, and
whose grotesque nickname of Neck-or-
nothing had been earned by fifty prison.
breakings and hair-breadth evasfons from
justice. And here was /, Edward Holmes,
artist, voyaging by night in balloon, in
company with q runaway galley-sl
we'll armed with knife and pistol, and
more than match in. strength for me,
even had he been less well provided My
terrible companion wasonly too much dis
posed to be talkative; and as we swept
Onward before the freshening wind, he
was kind enough to favor me with a
few brief anecdotes Of his past career, in
which the jocose and the horrible seemed
to mingle in cynic confusion. The one
point on which he was uncommunicative
was the manner of his recent escape
from Toulon; or how--probably owing
to the completely Of others-he became
possessed Of his weapons. But he told
graphically of the ten days of hardship
and hunger which he had endured while
skulking among the rocky hills by night,
and lying hidden among thorny brakes
by day, until at last he broke into pecan
Of triumph in relating how he had en-
countered and robbed the true M. de Vii
leneuve on his way to the village fete.
Twenty shining maps In his purse,
the idiotr he said exultingly, "and
5000 francs besides in notes, Well,
we'll! I left him gagged and bound to q
tree, after had taken the freedom to
change clothes with him; and there he
stands, no doubt, trembling, but fortunate
to keep whole skin. And / found in
his pocket the letter of M. Killick, prom.
ising to take him as a passenger in the
And 80 the idea had presented itself to
this daring. and ready.witted ruffian to
personate the victim of his recent rob-
ucTy, duu tuuO W pIOCuIC tAC HCauS vi
fight In what was certainly an unexam.
scapegoat of his audacious enterprise.
Meanwhile the wind, as I have said
was rising and as we hurried on looked
the moonlight ON the tremendous waves
forbear from an exclamation of dismay
Tho NJ oid dn oil roI
down.
"Bah! sea or land-what matters it p
he said recklessly. Throw out bal
last do you hear me ?" and unwillingly
l complied.
The balloon instantly rose, and it pres
emily became perceptibly colder, SO thai
sh}vered, and had to chafe my hands
together to prevent them from stiffen
ing. NV companions iron frame showed
no signs of suffering from the abrup
lowering of the temperature; but after
time the Defiance seemed to be nearer t.
the sea, for heard the low roar of tn,
waves; and then Risque-son-cou impa
tiently flung out another bag of ballast
and we rose. Vague, like the visionl
of dream, are my recollections of tn.
voyage of that miserable night, spen
thus, and in such company. I suffered
much from cold and fatigue, and 4
was mechanically that I obeyeG
the directions of the escaped galley-slave
who had now assumed the command
There was no doubt about the fixity O
his determination to continue the des
perate fight until we should be acros
the French frontier. How long ou
aerial journey might prove, undertaken
as 1t was without warm clothing, provi
sions or brandy, could not conjecture
while it was certain that we were hurry
ing along at swift pace-how swift
had no means of calculating-before tn
pressure of the strong wind.
So far as could tell, the direction o
the wind was uniform one, steadil,
from north-east-by-east. The sea whicl
l had seen beneath US was, no doubt ,
part of the gull, lying somewhere between
the mouths of the river Rhone and tn,
Spanish border, but the remainder of oul
route was, in theory, mere guesswork
A slight shift in the wind might cause III
to be carried out into the broad Mediter
ranean-even, did we bat drift beyont
the straits, into the broader Atlantic, t,
perish, as many balloon voyager ha
died, without q record of his fate
Whereabouts we were l could not tell
The dark, blurred outlines of what Ia,
beneath seemed to indicate hills AM
woods, not sea.
IF we come down in France, my younl
FRIEND" said the strident voice of tn
escaped convict, as we f1oated througl
masses of misty vapor, the condense'
moisture of which wetted me to tn
skin, "you may bid adieu to whateve
home ties and British affection
your insular heart may cherish. It's Of
fault of yours, you will say, if the win'
carries this tapping gas-bag to Poitou o
the Nivernais. No, but Is Risque-sol
cou to wait while the young Englishmal
crawls to the nearest brigade of gendar
merle to give notice that his fellow-trav
eler was Peter Paul Grincheux, forca
en- rupture de banp Thank you. pre-
fer to keep my own counsel. So sure a
we drop where Napoleon is Emperor
and the Official Journal posted on tn
walls of the Poste de Police, prove tina
one can keep secret better than two"
am not, hope, unduly timorous, bu
own that my heart sank within me as
heard these words, uttered with an EN-
phatic ferocity which left no doubt o
the speakers stern resolve. had full
made up my mind, should the desperad
at my side begin to realize. his threats
that ! would not be by any means pas
sive In the struggle; but his weapon
and his strength left little hope Of sal
isfactory ending to such contest.
There's something wrong with tn
valves" said my companion roughly
an hour later; the gas, diable is com
ing down. and we are sinking, IT.